Lev Grossman’s The Magicians is available on Audible as a 17 hrs 24 mins unabridged audiobook, narrated by Mark Bramhall.
Publisher’s Summary
Lev Grossman’s new novel THE BRIGHT SWORD is out now!
The New York Times bestselling novel about a young man practicing magic in the real world, now an original series on SYFY
“The Magicians is to Harry Potter as a shot of Irish whiskey is to a glass of weak tea. . . . Hogwarts was never like this.”
—George R.R. Martin
“Sad, hilarious, beautiful, and essential to anyone who cares about modern fantasy.”
—Joe Hill
“A very knowing and wonderful take on the wizard school genre.”
—John Green
“The Magicians may just be the most subversive, gripping and enchanting fantasy novel I’ve read this century.”
—Cory Doctorow
“This gripping novel draws on the conventions of contemporary and classic fantasy novels in order to upend them . . . an unexpectedly moving coming-of-age story.”
—The New Yorker
“The best urban fantasy in years.”
—A.V. Club
Quentin Coldwater is brilliant but miserable. A high school math genius, he’s secretly fascinated with a series of children’s fantasy novels set in a magical land called Fillory, and real life is disappointing by comparison. When Quentin is unexpectedly admitted to an elite, secret college of magic, it looks like his wildest dreams have come true. But his newfound powers lead him down a rabbit hole of hedonism and disillusionment, and ultimately to the dark secret behind the story of Fillory. The land of his childhood fantasies turns out to be much darker and more dangerous than he ever could have imagined. . . .
The prequel to the New York Times bestselling book The Magician King and the #1 bestseller The Magician’s Land, The Magicians is one of the most daring and inventive works of literary fantasy in years. No one who has escaped into the worlds of Narnia and Harry Potter should miss this breathtaking return to the landscape of the imagination.
Audiobook Details
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
- Length: 17 hrs 24 mins
- Publisher: Penguin Audio
- Release year: 2009
- Audible category: Literature & Fiction / Genre Fiction / Literary Fiction
Listener Ratings
The Magicians holds an average listener rating of 4.2/5 from 21294 Audible ratings.
On Audible, ratings for this title break down into narration performance and story separately:
- Performance (narration): 4.4/5
- Story: 4.1/5
- 5-star ratings: 49% of all ratings
What Audible Listeners Are Saying
5/5 stars — “Not your ordinary book”
The Magicians isn’t about friendship Harry Potter thrives on, or the beauty of another world that Narnia is about. But it is commonly falsely compared the two. The Magicians is not for those looking for the two, it borrows some ideas from the two, but is nothing like either. <br/><br/>The Magicians is in the best way I can describe a book that understands what it is straight from the beginning. Though not a happy uplifting book, its a great view of how magic would be used in the real world. <br/><br/>The only way I can tell someone if they would like this book or not is if they understand this is about a group of unhappy smart people who discover they can use magic and that the main character is someone who is self destructive and would do anything in his search for happiness. <br/><br/>The Magicians is Beautiful, not flawless. It’s not for everyone and it won’t be a story that I would recommend to most people, but to those who are looking for a great story and aren’t afraid of imperfect characters and concepts that aren’t completely original then The Magicians is territory that must be explored.— paul, Audible listener
5/5 stars — “Disappointing”
Lev Grossman creates a fantastic world of magic. However, it does not live up to expectations. The main character becomes distasteful and depressing. Many parts of the book seemed rushed while other parts were drawn out with boring talk. I would have liked to see more adventure, discovery and have a hero emerge or at least find some redeeming qualities in the characters. I give it 3 stars for its potential. I hope Lev grows as a writer through this book and produces a better sequel.— breckoz, Audible listener
5/5 stars — “Not high fantasy, and that’s what makes it so good”
First I’ll say that I absolutely love the idea behind this book. Kinda like an adult Harry Potter finds a dark Narnia. The narration is pretty solid and I enjoy the writing style. It’s setting in modern day New York and a works jumping mechanism so similar to Narnia makes a lot of it very easy to assimilate and understand. No world building necessary. There is a magic system, but it isn’t serious a focus on it by any means and I love that it’s not. Magic is there, it does cool stuff, nuff said. The people and their relationships with each other, themselves, and the worlds around them is the single largest driving factor here.Secondly, you’ll see a lot of people disparaging this book and it seems to me that nearly all of them came in expecting something specific, my advice is not to do that. This isn’t Robert Jordan, or Raymond E Feist, Tolkien or even CS Lewis. Grossman takes elements from the real world and blends them into aspects from fantasy you’re already familiar with. People go on about the characters being unlikable, and it bothers me that they don’t seem to understand that there is serious realism in that. Most people are NOT likeable in their late teens and early twenties with such an overhead view of them. But this series is about their growth, Quentin begins his magical studies as a mediocre magician, and he ends it three books later still far from the best, but he is leagues beyond where he started. You meet him and his friends at a very selfish point in their lives where they can barely see past themselves, as is true for most people, but you’ll say goodbye to a man that fully understands his place in life and appreciates the people he has above all else with hints of melancholy but not regret towards the things he’s sacrificed to keep them safe. He’ll become someone worthy of your attention and you’ll feel all the more invested having remembered where he started.
As I’ve said this is a book about people not magic, though you’ll find ample amounts of the latter in it. One caveat is that I didn’t listen to these novels until after is watched all four seasons of The Magicians on Syfy. The show gave me a much deeper understanding of these characters and also allowed me to envision their faces and mannerisms as I listened. And for anyone that thinks the show has better more likeable characters you should probably go back and rewatch the series, they aren’t much different in their motivations from the books if at all.
— william greenawalt, Audible listener
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